Brendan O’Kane revealed to me at dinner Friday night his secret to success in learning Chinese, “Single-minded devotion for two or three years.” I’m sure nearly every Sinologue I know will agree with him.
Tags CSL, Chinese, Education
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Education
This entry was posted
on February 11, 2007 at 4:05 pm and is filed under China, Education.
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February 14, 2007 at 10:41 am
I so want to learn Mandarin. But the progress is SO slow. Of course, I run my own business that keeps me busy 12-16 hours a day, but that shouldn’t be an excuse.
My main problem is remembering the vocabulary. I can spend an hour memorizing 10 words, then 5 minutes after that, I will have completely forgot them again.
February 14, 2007 at 12:38 pm
That happens to me all the time. Reviewing can be painful because sometimes it reminds me how much I’ve forgotten, as opposed to how much I’ve learned.
February 22, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I have the skill to fluently speak Chinese and how did I achieve that? Learning Chinese songs. It was so efficient that within one year I could speak it fluently. Try! It works!
February 22, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Brendan O’Kane’s comment would be music to the ears of the Chinese - the harder you work the better you will become!!! Unfortunately, this applies in entirity to languages and languages alone - of course the more effort you put in to language learning the better you will be - languages are for everyone. I’ve met many stupid English people but they can all speak English (just about!) and likewise with Chinese……
sadly it doesn’t completely apply in other walks of life - in China the more work you do, the cleverer you become (apparently)….the idea of at least a modicum of innate intelligence doesn’t seem to have sunk in yet!!!……
ironic then that in the one subject where this Chinese rule really does apply, none of our students in Weifang ever worked hard enough at their English to be any good at it eh Kev?
February 22, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Ironic? Or depressing?
Maybe English is the one subject where students believe that the rule doesn’t apply. How many times did you hear the question, “What’s the secret to learning English?” at English corner?